GOP watch: Where does the Tea Party go from here?

NPR looks at where the Tea Party goes after Election Day. "After Nov. 3, what you see is the Tea Party really get into gear and really find its stride," Tea Party Patriots' Mark Meckler told NPR. "One of the many events Meckler and his 2,800 chapters are planning is a summit of Tea Party-backed members of Congress. There's just one catch: Only freshmen will be invited. 'Our intent is to hold a meeting, shortly after the election and before the incumbents get their hands on these folks,' he says. 'Because we want to let these folks know a few things, the freshman class. No. 1, we want them to know that if they go to D.C. and they do what they are elected to do, that we have their back. ... No. 2, we want them to know that if they don't do the right thing that we're not going to stand with them.'"

What does that mean? Mike Lee, the probable next senator from Utah, said, "when he gets to Washington, he'll be voting the Tea Party agenda, including 'no' votes on tax hikes, deficit spending and raising the debt limit. 'Our current debt is a little shy of $14 trillion. And I don't want it to increase 1 cent above the current debt limit and I will vote against that,' he says. Even if it leads to government default and shutdown? 'It's an inconvenience, it would be frustrating to many, many people and it's not a great thing, and yet at the same time, it's not something that we can rule out,' he says. 'It may be absolutely necessary.'"

Time magazine on the Tea Party: "We'll read the public's reaction on Election Day, but the verdict inside the GOP has already been rendered. Republicans propose to take a fresh shot at being the party of smaller government (or no government), and anyone who won't sing that hymn is being thrown out of the choir. The budget-stomping bull of New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie, is the party's new role model, while in the GOP stronghold of Utah, longtime Senator Bob Bennett was rudely dumped simply because he engaged in earmarking and voted for the bank bailout. Small-government purists have captured GOP nominations for major offices from New York to Alaska, Colorado to Kentucky."